


sanguine sacrificium

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Canon Dialogue, Leo and Sophia appear briefly, M/M, Poor Nico, Season/Series 03, Trope Bingo Round 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:25:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: In S3e8 Vlad challenges Zo to a chess game with Nico's life on the line. Here, the game is played differently; while Zo is making his move, Vlad is drinking Nico's blood. Zo finds himself making unexpected choices to save Nico.





	sanguine sacrificium

**Author's Note:**

> This fic includes some actual dialogue from episodes s3e8 and s3e10

"Zo, wake up! Zo, please!"

Zo stirred. Nico was calling him. He forced his eyes open. He was sitting at a chess board, Vlad opposite him. Nico was in chains at Vlad's side.

"Nico!"

Vlad smiled. "You wish me to spare him? Then you will play the game. You will win. If not, I kill him."

Vlad pulled Nico's hand towards him, fingers digging cruelly into Nico's flesh. "Often the key to victory is choosing the right piece to sacrifice."

Nico was not being sacrificed, Zo swore. "My Great Uncle was a Grandmaster," he told Vlad. "You may as well forfeit. Save yourself the humiliation, Vlad."

"You can't bluff a man without a soul," Vlad said. "Today we play by Wallachian rules. During the time it takes you to decide your move, I will drink from your young friend."

He pressed Nico's wrist to his mouth, bit down. Nico cried out.

"Stop! Stop! I get it! I get it! Stop!"

Vlad gave a wicked smile.

"If I win, you set him free and you join us in our fight against the Turks," Zo said, bargaining without the proper leverage but without much choice.

"Only if you make the right sacrifice," Vlad said.

Zo was a bundle of nerves as the game began. Whenever Zo was making a move Vlad suckled at Nico's wrist and the sound of it, of Nico's screams, was off-putting. While Vlad made his move Nico was safe but Vlad never took long to decide.

Zo hesitated, certain he was being led into a trap.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Make your fucking move, Zo!" Nico was howling in pain, pale now, shivering.

Vlad shushed him. 

Zo saw the trap at last, changed his mind, moved a different piece.

"So you do know how to play," Vlad said in admiration, licking Nico's blood from his lips.

"Yeah." Zo tried to look at the board and not at Vlad. "I wasn't bluffing."

"Is your champion a brilliant swindler or just a dim-witted pickpocket, hmmm?" Vlad moved his knight and then raised Nico's wrist to his mouth again. 

As Zo's thoughts whirled, Vlad went on, "After I've exsanguinated the boy, I will drain you too. Your blood will fill my bathtub."

"Don't let him distract you, Zo," Nico said, tears running down his cheeks.

Vlad paused in his drinking, "You could always abandon your friend. The castle gate is really not very far."

"Shut up!" Zo yelled. He needed time to think, time Nico didn't have.

"Loyalty to your friend or to your own skin? Would he do the same for you?" Vlad began sucking on Nico's blood again.

Yes he would and Zo was going to save him and – there.

"It's check, it's check, it's check! Check!"

Vlad moved his queen but to no avail. Zo moved his rook.

"Check and mate! Stop!"

Vlad released Nico who fell to the floor, unconscious. Zo jumped to his feet and hurried to his side. "Nico!"

"Have you made the right sacrifice?"

Zo pulled the coin from his pocket and threw it at Vlad, who caught it effortlessly. "Your fucking gold sultani? Take it! Nico!"

Vlad bent down, pressed his fingers to Nico's neck. "Alas I have taken too much blood. He will not survive."

"No!" Zo raised damp eyes to Vlad. "Save him!"

Vlad lifted his shoulder. "There is one way."

*

"I'm a vampire?"

"I do not like that word," Vlad said.

"Yes," Zo told him. Watching Vlad turn Nico, pouring his blood into Nico's mouth and stroking at Nico's throat to make him swallow it had made him retch. Vlad had picked Nico up as if he weighed nothing at all and carried him to a bedchamber.

It was hours before Nico awoke and Zo had to explain what had happened.

"Am I immortal now?"

Vlad shrugged again. "You are much harder to kill."

"Do I have to drink blood?"

"Yes. But you do not have to kill. When you have been injured you will require more blood in order to heal. But you need only a little blood every few days to survive."

Nico shook his head.

"It'll be all right," Zo said, feeling it was not all right but not wanting to say it aloud. He'd made the decision without thinking it through and now Nico was alive but also possibly not quite alive. They'd have to make the best of it.

Vlad smiled. "If you are willing to make the sacrifice," he told Zo, "it shall be."

*

"We can't tell Leo," Zo said as he and Nico sat under a tree while Vlad's army set up camp for the night. "He won't understand and he'll be angry with me and Vlad. And he needs us. All of us. We can tell him later but not when we first see him."

"I know." Nico stroked Zo's face. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Zo held out his wrist and Nico sank his fangs into the flesh. Zo bit back a yelp and then Nico was suckling and it wasn't the worst the sensation in the world.

It could be pleasurable, Vlad had told them, if the victim was willing and Nico was gentle.

Nico drank for maybe a minute and then pulled away. He licked at the bite marks, which was supposed to help them heal, then at his lips. Zo wrapped his leather wrist cuff over the site of the wound.

"Thank you."

"I told you it would be all right," Zo said and Nico hugged him tightly.

*

The war was over. Plans were being made.

"Next, I think we go home," Leo said. "I've got some commissions to finish."

"Not so fast," Zo said. He and Nico had talked about this last night. Nico couldn't bear to go back to Florence, knowing Vanessa was with Lorenzo. He'd rather stay in Naples and help with the rebuilding. Zo had other ideas.

"What?"

"You need to build me a boat," Zo said.

"A boat? Why would I build you a boat?"

"As a token of your gratitude for all my years of friendship and service." 

Sophia cleared her throat. "Well, I have no need for a boat. But if you are building things, I'd love a library."

"I don't like to be rude, but wait your turn," Zo folded his arms. "Nico and I are going to take a cruise. We're tired and we need some time to recover from it all."

Leo blinked a few times. "You're leaving?"

"Just for a while. Nico and I have things to sort out," Zo said. "And you have Sophia now. You won't be alone."

*

The first night on their new boat, Nico sank his teeth into Zo's neck and Zo sighed as the momentary pain gave way to pleasure. Nico drank his fill and then he ran his tongue down Zo's chest, pausing to nip sometimes. His hand slid beneath Zo's waistband, making Zo pant in pleasure of a different kind.

"God," Zo said afterwards, replete. "That was amazing. We are going to have so much fun on our tour."

Nico snuggled up to him, kissed him. "I do worry what Leo will do without you."

"He's got Sophia."

"She's like a female Leo. We might come back to devastation."

Zo sighed, ran his fingers through Nico's hair. "Maybe. But we need this. Until we've got it figured out. You being a vampire and me being your food source, and well, this."

"I'm still not sure I like being a vampire," Nico said. "But I do like this."

"Me too." Zo kissed his hair. "Me too."

**Author's Note:**

> For the trope bingo prompt AU: fantasy; here, Nico is turned into a vampire, something beyond the usual demons and visions of show canon
> 
> Thanks to Tinamour for the brainstorming and beta :)


End file.
